Yousuf Siddiqui
CO-FOUNDER, Rūng Film Fest
Yousuf is an Organizational Effectiveness Consultant, Executive Coach, South Asian media creator and Squash enthusiast. He is a co-founder of the Rung Film Festival, the first in-person Pakistani-American film festival in the United States. To channel his own creative energy, he is currently working on launching his podcast called Desi Men Finally Talking. A squash player for over 20 years, Yousuf is on the board of the Southern California Squash Association.
Shahid Iqbal
CO-FOUNDER, Rūng Film Fest
Shahid has been championing the cause of Urdu language in the US since 2012. He has authored and produced 5 indie films in the last decade and played an instrumental role in many theater and film projects. A Houstonian since 1994, Shahid is working to provide a platform for the creatives, in particular Pakistani American creatives. His latest efforts include a podcast on Youtube featuring Pakistani creatives (of diverse backgrounds) and a brand new film festival in Houston, Texas called the Rung Film Festival (RFF).
Fahad Shaikh
Festival Director, Rūng Film Fest
Fahad has been active in South Asian media and theater since his teens, achieving significant milestones along the way. As a producer, his feature film “Pinky Memsaab” received critical acclaim in cinemas and is available to watch on Netflix. Previously, he collaborated with 25 directors worldwide on the feature “The Owner,” which earned a Guinness World Record in 2012. He has directed and produced documentaries for organizations such as the Scottish Documentary Film Institute and Imagenation Abu Dhabi. Fahad first gained recognition for his independent short film “The Veil” (2006), which won awards at the WorldFest Houston Film Festival. His career began with the silent short film “A Dollar Bill” (2002), created during a workshop in Houston. Fahad’s commitment to storytelling has established him as a respected figure in the film industry. He currently runs the production company Shoot At Sight with his partners and serves as Festival Director for the Rung Film Fest.
Faran Tahir
Actor
Faran Haroon Tahir was born in Los Angeles, California while his parents were studying acting and directing at UCLA Theatre Department. He comes from a theater family well known in Pakistan and India. Both his parents are actors, directors and writers in Pakistan. Faran moved back to Los Angeles, California in 1980, when he was 17 years old. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and his graduate degree from the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. He has been nominated and has won many awards for his work in theater and film.
Kamran Shaikh
Actor
Kamran Shaikh was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1974. He and his parents migrated to New York in 1980 and lived in Queens for 10 years before moving to Long Island. His breakthrough was an appearance on Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War where he decided he wanted to act for a living. His career in acting has been a fast paced success story since then, landing him major roles on shows like, Law and Order: Organized Crime, OuterBanks, Cobra Kai, Haunted Mansion, Half Baked 2, The Tutor, Ozark, The Resident, NCIS and many more.
Sadia Uqaili
Filmmaker
As a Pakistani American award-winning artist, filmmaker, and educator, Sadia Uqaili utilizes the camera and her art to inspire, motivate, heal, and celebrate. An indefatigable creative force, her work has been exhibited in more than twenty exhibits and the list of her curatorial shows runs into thirty plus, since her migration to Chicago in 2001 from Canada. Her work is currently on show at the South Asia Institute, Seen and Unseen is rated as the Top Ten exhibits by the Chicago Tribune. She has received awards for her art from the Internationale d’art Miniature, Malaysia Annual Exhibition of International Contemporary Prints, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the LoreVa Grellner Scholarship. Winner of the Chicago South Asian Film Festival Award, Wild Things was a short film produced under her direction at Snow City Arts, an arts education program serving at risk youth in hospitals that Sadia led as Artistic Director for 15 years. As a Kartemquin fellow, Sadia is currently producing Bapsi, a feature-length documentary. She is a proud member of A- Doc, BGDM, and Mezcla Media Collective. She serves on panels and juries for multimedia exhibits and at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, and the RUNG film festival in Houston.
Zehra Nawab
Film Director, Actor
Zehra is a director & actor for film. She is a GEMS Film Lab fellow developing her debut feature film, which she pitched at the Frontieres Market at Fantasia Festival 2024. She is in post-production for the documentary ‘Niswan Nama,’ funded by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (SOC) Films. Notable for her women-centered storytelling, Zehra co-directed the Canada Council Grant-funded short film ‘Farzana.’ Her direction work earned her the National AGAHI Award for Journalism in Culture. As part of the 2024 Creators of Color incubator, she is developing a scripted series that she pitched at the TIFF Big Pitch 2024. As an actor, she plays the protagonist in the upcoming television series ‘Second Chance Hina.‘ Zehra’s acting debut was in the Pakistani film ‘Khel Khel Mein’ (2022), followed by the Indian web series ‘Qatil Haseenaon Kay Naam’ (2022) on Zee5. She has played the lead roles in the Canadian short film ‘Spin Over’ (2023) and the theatre play ‘Transit’ (2023).